Vietnam has the highest percentage of women in top positions in Asia, according to a report released recently by Deloitte Global, one of the world’s largest accounting firms and with the largest professional network.

With women representing 17.6 per cent of executive board members, Vietnam takes the lead in Asia, followed by Malaysia with 13.7 per cent and Singapore with 10.2 per cent, according to the “Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective” report conducted on 7,000 corporations and companies in 64 countries. The proportion of female leaders in Vietnam is even higher than the global average of 15 per cent.

Chairwoman and CEO of Deloitte Vietnam, Ms. Ha Thi Thu Thanh, said in the report that over the past 25 years, after the Law on Enterprises came into effect, women-owned businesses have grown rapidly. Deloitte predicted that the proportion of women on executive boards in Vietnam will increase to 35 per cent by 2020.

The report also said that the percentage of women leaders in Asia remains low, only higher than Latin America, with an average of 7.8 per cent. Japan and South Korea rank at the bottom, with 3.5 per cent and 4.1 per cent, respectively. Europe has the highest ratio, with women representing 22.8 per cent of board members.

Vietnam was also ranked among the Top 10 countries most suitable for women-founded startups in a report from Mastercard released in April.